“Title Fight” Unravels Thirteen Year Native Battle Against Fortescue
The native title battle between the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation and Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) is considered by many, a story resembling the likes of ‘David and Goliath’.
Within the span of fifteen years, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest built up FMG to become a global iron ore giant generating over nineteen billion dollars a year, which has damaged and destroyed ancient Aboriginal heritage by using ‘tough and savage’ litigation to secure lucrative outcomes, all the while brokering patently unfair agreements with the traditional owners of the land.
This strategy however became unstuck when FMG encountered a few hundred Yindjibarndi people and their leader, Michael Woodley, who led his community through a thirteen-year battle against the iron ore company on a shoestring budget; making tenacious efforts in the process to defend their spiritual connection to country.
Meri Fatin spoke with Paul Cleary, author of the book ‘Title Fight‘ to the studio, who discussed the ‘Wild West‘ of iron-ore mining in the Pilbara, along with answering questions surrounding who the land belongs to and who gets to choose what it’s used for.
